Monday, 8 October 2012

Following a jam-packed and riotously well-received event at
Ilkley Literature Festival, Guardian journalist Dave Simpson again discusses
his revelatory exploration of Leeds United and the glory years of the 1990s.
After 1992, he argues, football changed beyond all recognition as the Premier
League saw sky-rocketing wages and billionaire owners and the dictates of
television took the game away from the fans. Today Simpson reveals the secrets
of the inner sanctum that delivered that extraordinary title and explores
whether football is now so disenfranchised from supporters that it has lost its
soul.Booking options
http://www.morleyliteraturefestival.co.uk/book-tickets/

"Leeds United, at the bottom of Division Two, needed a new identity. Wilkinson wanted Leeds to be ready for the Premier League; in the end, we entered it as Champions. It’s unthinkable now, and that’s why we need Dave Simpson’s book to make us think about it."

Sunday, 19 August 2012

"In just three and a half seasons, following almost a decade in the wilderness, Wilkinson transformed a relegation-threatened second-level side into League winners. The sheer size of the achievement has finally been given the recognition it deserves in The Last Champions. Amid the usual revelations that are commonplace to all contemporary football biographies, Simpson’s story captures the pathos of the many players who narrowly missed out on the Premier League cash cow. While some leading lights from the squad forged lucrative post-retirement careers, such as Eric Cantona, Jones and Kamara, many of the title-winners are still holding down ordinary jobs to pay the bills. Former striker Carl Shutt works as a travel agent and towering centre-half John McClelland provides regular tours of Elland Road when not working as a postman. McClelland best sums up the sheer magnitude of the team’s achievement, which he likens to “climbing Everest”. To put it into context, imagine Southampton winning the Premier League title in 2013-14. That is what Wilkinson and his players achieved and it is what makes this story so special and worthy of Simpson’s insightful homage." - WHEN SATURDAY COMES"Busts the Cantona myth and breaks the mould in exploring team building. The Last Champions is a welcome reclamation of [Howard] Wilkinson’s success, however transient it proved to be. Perhaps the narratives produced in the dominance of a small clique of hyper-rich clubs with superstar players provide intrigue for global television audiences, with their ceaseless stories of revenge, but the triumphs of teams like Wilkinson’s offered interest for fans of provincial teams without stars, suggesting that well-organised units could succeed without the kind of money that later came into English football from Sky TV and then the US, Russia and the Middle East. As Simpson so wistfully explains, we shall probably never see their like again" - NEW STATESMAN"Already a seasoned tracker of northern burnouts - his The Fallen sought out every former employee of Mark E. Smith - Leeds fan Simpson is ideally qualified to track down everyone involved with the last team to win the old First Division Championship, before its "rebranding" as the Premiership. At times it's unbearably poignant - the recent suicide victim Gary Speed comes across, as he always did, as balanced and thoughtful, while at least two team-mates nearly went the same way. But there's humour too. Vinnie Jones giving way his theatrical leanings by turning up to training in wild outfits; the author's messy cocktail with Lee Chapman. It couldn't last. Manager Howard Wilkinson already had these men playing at their limits. But Simpson neatly captures football's key appeal, the way it can restore the simple certainties of childhood. These men are now postmen, pensioners, disabled, successful, travel agents and the seemingly lost (including "mad as cheese" midfielder David Batty). But they talk with equal wonder about their greatest season" - THE WORD

"Quality interviews, a fund of anecdotes... An illuminating portrait of an era that already seems as distant as the 1970s" - BACKPASS

"Highly recommended" - YORKSHIRE EVENING POST

"Fascinating story" - YORKSHIRE RADIO

"A really, really good read" - RADIO LEEDS

"Excellent book" - YORKSHIRE POST

"This excellent book evokes what increasingly seems like a golden age" - CHOICE

"A fantastic book about Leeds United and that era, beautifully written detective work" - MARTIN KELNER, RADIO LEEDS

"Great memories of players who played with pride and passion, the last ordinary people to win the league before the Premier League brought astronomical salaries and billionaire foreign owners" - JAKE KATBORG, RADIO LEEDS

"Will appeal to loads of Leeds United fans and those who are just nosy to know about that particular era of football" - RADIO YORK

"Really enjoyed the book - it's a great read" - LEE CHAPMAN, LEEDS UNITED League Championship winner, 1991-92

Tuesday, 14 August 2012

Really enjoyed appearing on Katherine Hannah's hour-long special along with young LUFC fan Josh Westerman and the impressive Gary Cooper from Leeds United Supporters Trust, who gave us the latest on the potential takeover.

45. The Last Champions: Dave Simpson

Guardian journalist Dave Simpson discusses his revelatory exploration of Leeds United and the glory years of the 1990s. After 1992, he argues, football changed beyond all recognition as the Premier League saw sky-rocketing wages and billionaire owners and the dictates of television took the game away from the fans. Today Simpson reveals the secrets of the inner sanctum that delivered that extraordinary title and explores whether football is now so disenfranchised from supporters that it has lost its soul.

Tuesday, 24 July 2012

On Sunday morning, with the sun shining and the hangover just becoming bearable I wandered into a big tent and sat and listened to two grown men talk to me and the assembled audience for an hour and a half. Sunday morning, two men on the stage, discussing rites and rituals. Was I at Mass? Had I joined some sort of cult? No. Yes. The two men in question were Dave Simpson and Anthony Clavane and they were discussing football. And whether or not we thought it has lost its soul. So in a way this was a religious gathering. All those in there were converts to the various denominations; Middlesbrough, Newcastle, Chelsea, Everton, Burnley and Man City. But most were followers of the divine truth. Yes, most of us in attendance were Leeds fans.

Dave Simpson is author of a recent book “The Last Champions” the book tells the story of the Leeds United title winning team of 1992. The last ever Champions of the “old” First Division. The last time an Englishman managed a team to the pinnacle of the domestic game (Howard Wilkinson). And in his opinion the last hurrah before English football was sacrificed at the altar of the Premier League. His co-celebrant was Anthony Clavane, sports writer for the Sunday Mirror and author of his own book; “The Promised Land”. They had been brought together by the wonderful people at the Deer Shed Festival. Now this is usually a music festival but they, like the Northern Line, embrace all aspects of modern culture. So a book reading on a Sunday morning is perfect. They led a discussion that embraced all aspects of the game; ticket prices, hooliganism, racism and whether or not we would swap places with Man City fans?At the time I listened and at various points I wanted to add something to the debate. I wanted to be pedantic and tell Anthony it was 5-4 against Liverpool in 1991 and that David Batty did not score. I wanted to add to the Middlesbrough fan and his assessment of their only European final. He reckoned they would have won it if only their fans had not been so drunk. Similar to Leeds in the 1996 League Cup Final where most of us were so far gone we fought amongst ourselves rather than support our team. I wanted to agree and disagree in equal measure. It was an enthralling 90 minutes. End to end stuff. A show of hands at the final whistle would say a draw. So this is extra-time. I have thought long and hard and have come up with my own match winner. Like Carl Shutt in the Nou Camp. Nobody has heard of me but my 5 minutes of fame are fast approaching.As we left the tent in the glorious sunshine, off to see Malcolm Middleton, who’s new band (Human don’t be angry) are not nearly as good as his old band (Arab Strap). We hit the nail on the proverbial head. Everyone looks back with rose tinted spectacles. The Beatles were better than The Clash. The Smiths were better than Oasis. Spike Island was better than Heaton Park. People who were at the former tell those who weren’t that they missed out. It’s like those television shows which look at Kids TV and conclude it was better in the 70s? Really? Mary, Mungo and Midge was better than Spongebob Squarepants? Games were better? Monopoly was better than a Playstation? Fashion was better? Food was better? Beer was cheaper and so on and so forth. Rubbish. Things change. Things are different. Everyone thinks that what happened to them between the ages of 16 to 24 is the best thing that has ever happened. And depending on age this could be the Summer of Love in 67 or Rave in 87 or Oasis at Maine Road or Arctic Monkeys in 2005. Football is the same. Was an era of Heysel, The Bradford Fire and Hillsborough really better than football now? No, of course it wasn’t. I think football did lose its soul. It lost its soul in the 80s. Falling attendances; Leeds, Middlesbrough and Rangers etc had regular attendances of less than 10,000. Even Newcastle were often below 20,000. If football was so great why did nobody go? Fans being killed by fellow fans or by poor stadiums. Who would want a return to that? Football did lose its way and I think the events of the 80s sunk it so low it had only two options. Die. Or come back stronger. It came back stronger. Italia 90 kicked it back to life and then the revolution began.So has football lost its soul? No, I don’t think so. I think it’s just different now to how it was then. Like in the 70s and 80s it was different to the 50s and 60s. Yes players get too much money, or to be more precise, some, get too much money! The corporate whores who rattle their jewellery whilst tucking into their prawn sandwhiches having never actually paid to watch their team are a blight on the modern game. Foreign owners who care little for the club or community that they put money into, or more commonly, take money out of. Sponsors who take all the tickets to the big games. The price of replica shirts. The cost of getting a seat in the ground of your team. But these are today’s problems, what were yesterdays? Throwing bananas at black players, racist chants, getting soaked in a falling down, decrepit away end or getting rained on by bricks in a falling down decrepit away end. Having to run for your life outside the stadium. Chairman who bled the clubs dry. The FA taking all the tickets to the big games. Everything has changed and nothing has changed. Has football lost its soul? No. Football like life is eternal. It may lose its way at times. It may die a little but it will go on forever. I love football as much in 2012 as I did in 1975. I have just renewed my season ticket at Elland Road for the 22nd season in succession. I watched almost every game there was on TV last season and I loved it. Its soul will never die. Peter Martin

Saturday, 21 July 2012

This Sunday: 11.30 amDave Simpson & Anthony ClavaneHas Football Lost Its Soul?Anthony Clavane (author of 'Promised Land') in conversation with Dave Simpson (author of 'The Last Champions: Leeds United & The Year Football Changed Forever') about how football has changed since the formation of the Premiership, asking whether the modern game has become so disenfranchised from ordinaryfans its lost its soul.Baldersby Park near Topcliffe, NorthYorkshire

Thursday, 21 June 2012

The Last
Champions – Leeds United and the year that football changed forever by Dave
Simpson (Bantam Press)

Twenty years ago
a rag-tag bunch of journeymen footballers, raw youngsters, non-League players
plucked from obscurity and a mercurial Frenchman achieved the seemingly
impossible. Assembled for just £8 million, the 1991-92 Leeds United team
created by Howard Wilkinson became the last side to win the old First Division
title. The following season the Premier League was born.

What this team
achieved in a short space of time was unprecedented. In just three and a half
seasons, following almost a decade in the wilderness, Wilkinson transformed a
relegation-threatened second-level side into League winners. The sheer size of
the achievement has finally been given the recognition it deserves in The Last
Champions.

Author Dave
Simpson tracked down the members of the title-winning side to find out what it
was like in the inner sanctum of the club during this momentous period.
Featuring interviews with former players including Lee Chapman, Tony Dorigo and
a touching chat with Gary Speed shortly before his untimely death, Simpson
pieces together what made this team such a cohesive, well-oiled machine.

The book starts
by revealing that Wilkinson pioneered many of the sports science techniques
common in today’s game. From the dietary advice and special vitamin drinks he
prescribed, through to the extreme, military-style fitness regime that earned
him the “Sergeant” moniker, Wilkinson was acutely aware that physical
conditioning could make up for a shortfall in technical ability.

It also charts
Wilkinson’s sometimes-suspect man-management skills and his ability to cut
players loose without seeming to giver any thought to their feelings. Among
many others, Vinnie Jones and Chris Kamara were ruthlessly released when
Wilkinson decided they had served their purpose by helping the club return to
the top flight.

The interviewees
provide plenty of eye-opening stories about former team-mates. While Simpson
failed to make contact with David Batty, who turned his back on the game after
retiring, there are plenty of colourful anecdotes about the midfielder. Such as
the time an inebriated Jones took his car for a spin – with some “birds” in tow
– around Batty’s front lawn before breaking into the house to frighten his
team-mate, only to find Batty wielding a Bowie knife that he hid in his bed.

Amid the usual
revelations that are commonplace to all contemporary football biographies,
Simpson’s story captures the pathos of the many players who narrowly missed out
on the Premier League cash cow. While some leading lights from the squad forged
lucrative post-retirement careers, such as Eric Cantona, Jones and Kamara, many
of the title-winners are still holding down ordinary jobs to pay the bills.
Former striker Carl Shutt works as a travel agent and towering centre-half John
McClelland provides regular tours of Elland Road when not working as a postman.
McClelland best sums up the sheer magnitude of the team’s achievement, which he
likens to “climbing Everest”. To put it into context, imagine Southampton
winning the Premier League title in 2013-14. That is what Wilkinson and his
players achieved and it is what makes this story so special and worthy of
Simpson’s insightful homage.

Thursday, 31 May 2012

"Already a seasoned tracker of northern burnouts - his The Fallen sought out every former employee of Mark E. Smith - Leeds fan Simpson is ideally qualified to track down everyone involved with the last team to win the old First Division Championship, before its "rebranding" as the Premiership. At times it's unbearably poignant - the recent suicide victim Gary Speed comes across, as he always did, as balanced and thoughtful, while at least two team-mates nearly went the same way. But there's humour too. Vinnie Jones giving way his theatrical leanings by turning up to training in wild outfits; the author's messy cocktail with Lee Chapman. It couldn't last. Manager Howard Wilkinson already had these men playing at their limits. But Simpson neatly captures football's key appeal, the way it can restore the simple certainties of childhood. These men are now postmen, pensioners, disabled, successful, travel agents and the seemingly lost (including "mad as cheese" midfielder David Batty). But they talk with equal wonder about their greatest season" - STEVE JELBERT, THE WORD

"A fantastic book about Leeds United and that era, beautifully written detective work" - MARTIN KELNER, RADIO LEEDS

"Great memories of players who played with pride and passion, the last ordinary people to win the league before the Premier League brought astronomical salaries and billionaire foreign owners" - JAKE KATBORG, RADIO LEEDS

"Highly recommended" - PHIL HAY, Yorkshire Evening Post

"Will appeal to loads of Leeds United fans and those who are just nosy to know about that particular era of football" - JON COWAP, RADIO YORK

AMAZON OVERVIEW http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Last-Champions-Dave-Simpson/dp/0593069269/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334996673&sr=1-1When the Leeds United players celebrated winning the championship in April 1992, they could not have had an inkling of how momentous the occasion was. Manchester United, losers at Liverpool that sunny Sunday afternoon, had now gone 25 years without winning the league. Howard Wilkinson's side, promoted just two seasons ago, could bring back the glory days to Leeds. But Wilkinson would prove to be the last English manager to win the league. In 1992, football changed beyond all recognition.

Twenty years on, The Last Champions looks back at the roots of that success and the amazing cast of characters who came together to fashion the triumph. As in his acclaimed book The Fallen, Dave Simpson's quest to catch up with the protagonists of the era, from the visionary Sergeant Wilko, top scorer Lee Chapman and unsung heroes like Mike Whitlow and Carl Shutt (not forgetting Eric Cantona, of course), sees him unearth some extraordinary untold stories.

And he finds that The Last Champions were also the last ordinary people to win the league, before the Premier League saw skyrocketing wages, billionaire foreign owners and the dictates of television taking the game away from the fans. It is the brilliantly told story of the end of an era.

Friday, 11 May 2012

Lovely review of The Last Champions in the June 2012 issue of The Word, by Steve Jelbert.

Already a seasoned tracker of northern burnouts - his The Fallen sought out every former employee of Mark E. Smith - Leeds fan Simpson is ideally qualified to track down everyone involved with the last team to win the old First Division Championship, before its "rebranding" as the Premiership. At times it's unbearably poignant - the recent suicide victim Gary Speed comes across, as he always did, as balanced and thoughtful, while at least two team-mates nearly went the same way. But there's humour too. Vinnie Jones giving way his theatrical leanings by turning up to training in wild outfits; the author's messy cocktail with Lee Chapman. It couldn't last. Manager Howard Wilkinson already had these men playing at their limits. But Simpson neatly captures football's key appeal, the way it can restore the simple certainties of childhood. These men are now postmen, pensioners, disabled, successful, travel agents and the seemingly lost (including "mad as cheese" midfielder David Batty). But they talk with equal wonder about their greatest season.

Saturday, 31 March 2012

When the Leeds United players celebrated winning the championship in April 1992, they could not have had an inkling of how momentous the occasion was. Manchester United, losers at Liverpool that sunny Sunday afternoon, had now gone 25 years without winning the league. Howard Wilkinson's side, promoted just two seasons ago, could bring back the glory days to Leeds. But Wilkinson would prove to be the last English manager to win the league. In 1992, football changed beyond all recognition.

Twenty years on, The Last Champions looks back at the roots of that success and the amazing cast of characters who came together to fashion the triumph. As in his acclaimed book The Fallen, Dave Simpson's quest to catch up with the protagonists of the era, from the visionary Sergeant Wilko, top scorer Lee Chapman and unsung heroes like Mike Whitlow and Carl Shutt (not forgetting Eric Cantona, of course), sees him unearth some extraordinary untold stories.

And he finds that The Last Champions were also the last ordinary people to win the league, before the Premier League saw skyrocketing wages, billionaire foreign owners and the dictates of television taking the game away from the fans. It is the brilliantly told story of the end of an era.

Aussie

About Me

Dave Simpson is a Guardian journalist who writes mainly on music. His first book, The Fallen[www.thefallenbook.co.uk], was a monumental quest to track down everyone who had ever played in Mark E Smith's legendary band. He is now applying those same forensic and possibly certifiable skills to his football team, Leeds United. Living in Yorkshire, he has supported Leeds since the early 1970s, man and boy, which has brought about a small amount of pleasure and a great amount of pain. He also wrote for the LeedsLeedsLeeds magazine which documented United's rise and mostly fall from 1998 to 2011.